"If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes"

[Wools]

One of gamings biggest advantages it has over it's film and novel counterparts is that it can give you control over it's world it transport's you to. From Oldboy, Se7ev, Blade Runner, The French Connection and countless others, Film paints a believeable world in which it's characters inhabbit and the audience can feel part of. The same can be said of novels and now with the increased visual fidelity of modern consoles and PC's Videogames can house a world in which the player can feel home in.

Their are better games, for example I class Mario 64 as my favourite game ever made, but atmosphere is what makes me come back and enjoy games. They take you to another believable world and then let you act within it, and that is what videogames have over it's other mediums. These are my favourite atmospheric games.

Resident Evil series



The unfolding tale of the destruction of Racoon city is one of the longest, most convoluted, twisted and human trilogy's ever made. From the first haunted house tale to the apocalypse like finale of the third it's atmosphere had continuity and that was only lost after the change in direction in Resi 4.

Many people derided the series as they found the Zombies unscary or prefered the more subtle nature of the Silent Hill series. But no other game had the feeling of absloute loneliness, fright and the desperation of it's survivors. The little scrapbooks and diary entries were a stroke of genius.

Half Life 2



1984 the game.

From your first steps the player is made aware of the Combine's control over Earth and you will never have any effect over it. You're made to feel little in this beautiful European city that is overseen by the opressor's but within minutes you fight back. The entire game's atmosphere is centered around the resistance's fight where you're made to feel these people are alive and fighting for their lives.

From the softly spoken people, brutal Combine, beautifully real locations and amazing electronic score, Half Life 2 forces the player into City 17 like no other game.

So what's your favourite atmospheric games?

[eastyy]

Silent hill the only game where i have watched someone else play through and i was not bored

[VR46]

Months ago I watched a speed-run replay of RE4, even after completing it, it was a very entertaining two hours. Personally would never sit and watch someone else actually playing a game, my kids seem to enjoy doing it though.

Speedrun site link

http://speeddemosarchive.com/gamelist/FullList.html

[babs]

Monkey Island series



For me the most atmospheric games ever. I've always said if I could have a fantasy holiday anywhere, it'd be on Monkey/Melee island and the others. The first game, with the CD audio version, is unrivalled as far as I'm concerned



In saying all of that, Grim Fandango gives it a run for it's money in terms of 'being there'

[jimmbob]

Half Life 2, just a fantastic experience from start to finish. The depressing atmosphere and desperation of the people above ground is handled so well. Also finding that it's all gone to **** down in Ravenholme is both scary and depressing, no survivors, no light, a brilliant level, even if it sometimes feels a bit of a chore.

Resident evil 2's music adds so much atmosphere to the game, especially the police station score.

[Wools]

I absloutly adore Residen Evil 2's music, it's synthesised class!

It suits the game down to a tee, and has that opressive atmosphere to it as well. Leon & Claire, Ada's theme and The Front Hall and just brilliant.

[merf]

got to be Ico for me, it just felt so desolate and empty, a truly beautiful game and the uncluttered screen with no guages or bars was perfect

[jimmbob]

How could I forget Ico, bloody marvellous game and one of the reasons I still own a PS2. Also worth a mention is Prince of Persia SOT, great game, lovely dream like sequences, only let down by the dodgy combat. The old ruined palaces and crumbly old traps made me realise what a next gen Tomb Raider game could be like.

[oblivion_6]

Condemned and Farenheit are two games that instantly spring to mind, easily in the last few years no game has managed to immerse me and get me so involved in a plot line, characters etc as these two

Condemned offered some of the best scripting and also tension building ive ever seen

Whereas Farenheit was something so new and superb in the way it was like a really good film.

[asnozz]

Definetly Shenmue 1 and 2 here. Such a involving game, it is a game that almost achieves a 'real life' feeling interms of its plot and interactions.

[112]

I think one of the main aspects of survival horrors that i like when watching others play is watching them play those scary parts and also seeing how they react to situations you encountered on your own run through the game, im always suprised how my brother gets past parts i could not with ease but yet struggle for hours to do other things i found instinctive.

Of all games Biohazard and Silent hill always shine through when i know a scary part is coming up and my bro has no idea, then when he is frightened within an inch of his life i think yes! It got him too! Its great!

Although it can be annoying when you want to shout out at them to open door 1 instead of 2 but hey, they know no better.

112

[MattyD]

Silent Hill 2. The fog in the 'real' world sections leaves a lot to your imagination and that's always going to be scary, but the level of detail in the environments is also very important. You really get a sense that everybody in the town just disappeared all of a sudden.

And then when you go into non-foggy areas like the Other World, it's so oppressive and gungy-looking you can't help but feel icked out. Silent Hill 3 turned the Other World stuff right up to eleven though with some fantastic industrial soundscapes.

I'm also going to vote for Half-Life 2 because "1984 the game" gets me extremely excited. The outskirts of City 17 look like someone took Battersea Power Station and dumped it on an autumnal Salisbury Plain, which is clearly cool as. Also, if you stand still somewhere and turn the sound WAY up and listen, you can hear loads of creepy, Newspeak-esque announcements on the Combine tannoys

[Concept]

Great thread.

I've seen mad witches bleed their blood through the pores of their skin, I've seen entire sunrises take place thousands of feet up into the air above the clouds, I've seen cities infested to the horizon with zombies, I've seen beautiful twilight skies shine over the edges of an abandoned lake, I've rode on the back of a giant flying eagle across the ruins of an old city, I've jumped off a gigantic windmill into the beautiful pond of a lonely, desolate castle, I've gone through the ages of the Earth on a wireframe rail, I've been placed in a mysterious European city where everyone is controlled and hounded, I've rolled up the entire world into the shape of an enormous ball, I've run through twisted gravity-defying corridors inside a forest temple, I've jumped through portals into rooms at death-defying angles, I've driven monsterous robotic mechs equipped with a real cockpit, I've explored tropical paradise islands up to the highest mountain, I've wandered about a beautiful withered, Autumn forest on the escape from mad villiagers, I've had to assassinate insane comic book creators who bring their creations to life as well as neurotic psychedelic texan businessmen, I've helped destroy and bring down massive ring-based alien landscapes, I've delved into watercoloured renditions of Japanese history, I've explored the expansive streets of a fictional Hong Kong before climbing to the top of a 40 floor building, I've spray painted the streets of a neon-encased Tokyo, I've cut the heads off three massive hydras before clambering onto a desert beast millions of times my size, I've jumped out of planes and fallen thousands of feet into the ocean, I've explored an entire state and three cities with just my feet, I've taken jobs on as taxi drivers, couriers and fork-lift drivers, I've raced through the streets of a minimilist, idealistic future, I've guided monkeys trapped in balls through strange mazes, I've led an anorexic rabbit over bouncing wires laid in time to whatever music they react to, I've watched the world progressively descend into the ice age as a man slowly loses his mind, I've unfolded a conspiracy that involves cults and rituals buried at the back of a mansion, I've lost sense of reality and fallen into a world where virtual reality recognises itself and mocks me, I've explored an ethreal fantasy world where I can be anything I want to be and conquered dungeons, I've explored ancient-old tombs and plundered their treasures, I've landed on new worlds and rolled myself up to zoom down chutes on them, I've lived life at an insane hotel where the staff chase and haunt their own guests over the period of a week, I've fought to survive a snuff film on the desolate and destroyed streets of a city throughout a cold winter night, I've escaped a collapsing city after an earthquake, I've lived life at a telekenetic camp and jumped into the mind of a fish, I've climbed and swung my way around the top of a royal Persian palace, I've lived through a cartoon and sailed the vast, open seas, I've been on one of the longest bike chases ever seen through the streaming jungles of Russia before escaping on a plane after killing my master, I've witnessed a gigantic triangle-headed man gleefully stalk me while hiding terrified in a wardrobe, I've absailed down buildings in the dead of the night in China to uncover a political conspiracy, I've taken in the sights of the entire island of Oahu, I've fought hardened aliens in sub-zero temperatures using a half-functioning robot, I've rapped as a dog in love with a flower, I've flown through tunnels constructed of music, I've sucked up ghosts in haunted mansions, I've controlled small plant beings and helped them win over an entire garden, I've become an alien bounty hunter exploring an open Wild West while the sun sets and the skies quietly glimmer around me, I've become a dolphin and swimmed through the depths of the ocean caverns, I've driven 200mph through the sharp streets of New York at dusk, I've flown with a dragon inside and over a burning, mysterious forest, I've walked over a world that possesses an interactive golden themepark suspended in the sky, I've watched eagles swoop down over the delicate, curved mountains of Guilin within a campfire cave just before dawn.

So when I have people say to me that videogaming has no value, they're doing so from a position which has only experienced a fraction of what I've have.

What's more culturally trivial?

Watching frequently obtuse reality television and soaps where the same plot lines are repeated time after time, or living lives through a pair of endless eyes?

I'll leave that one up to you.

[spagmasterswift]

Killer7 has an atmosphere that keeps you at arms length from truth, reality, sanity and safety at all time. A blank canvas from which many disturbing characters emerge, all offering you clues to help orientate your mind.

Pigeon flutters as you read information from Johnny Gagnon about how one of your personalities can spurt blood from her arm and how sometimes her arm can suck blood too. Travis will haunt you dressed in amusing T-shirts yet a constant reminder that you are a killer. Rings are pulled from the mouth of Susie Sumner's disembodied head and Yoon Hyun has nothing but contempt for your need to call upon him for help. More chilling still is the fact that you are just as bizarre as those you meet, but to press on with this would enter Spoiler territory eh Emir?!









The only thing powerful enough to wake you from this surreal dream is the Heaven's Smile. Like somebody creeping up behind you and shouting BANG in your ear!

[Tetsuo]

Beautiful post, Concept.